Trusted Business Partners Have Elevated Their Relationships With Business Customers

LIVONIA, Mich., July 20, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Utilities that have reacted more quickly to economic headwinds by increasing communication to their business customers are transforming their customer relationships, with increased brand equity leading to significantly higher customer engagement. Today, we name these 15 top utilities as the 2023 Trusted Business Partners.

New data from Cogent Syndicated show that, after seeing double-digit declines from early 2021 to the first half of 2022, Utility Trusted Brand & Customer Engagement™: Business study index scores have stabilized. Although significantly lower than their pinnacle in the first half of 2021, all industry core indices are still well above levels last seen before the COVID-19 pandemic.

The 2023 Trusted Business Partners saw Brand Trust score advances in the first half of 2021 and declines in the first half of 2022 that were similar to industry changes; however, these utilities have rebounded from those 2022 drops with significant gains across Brand Trust factors, while industry scores have essentially flatlined. Additionally, the Brand Trust gap continues to widen, with Trusted Business Partners scoring 46 points higher than the industry average.

Those are some of the latest findings of the 2023 Utility Trusted Brand & Customer Engagement™: Business study, which tracks the performance of 81 gas, electric and combination utilities to identify brand and customer experience opportunities and trends in the industry. The report is published semiannually by Escalent, a top human behavior and analytics advisory firm with extensive energy, utility and brand experience.

Pre-COVID-19, the 2023 Trusted Business Partners were communicating more effectively and more often than the industry average, and that gap has also widened. The Communications Intensity Index, Cogent’s proxy for utility communication spend, was 20% higher than the industry average for 2023 Trusted Business Partners in the first half of 2020; it’s now 30% higher.

“The 2023 Trusted Business Partners have accomplished one of the essential goals of high-engagement utilities: They have established themselves as strategic partners, helping businesses explore options for savings, sustainability efforts and environmental goals, as well as proving themselves to be active, valuable members of the local business community,” said Suzanne Haggerty, director of syndicated research with the Energy team at Escalent.

When utilities began pulling back on communication spend in the second half of 2021, Trusted Business Partners didn’t pull back as much, and they reversed course sooner than the industry as a whole, amping up communication in the second half of 2022 as inflation-fueled spending constraints began taking their toll on residential and business customers alike.

“Trusted Business Partners have proven the value of frequent communication and a visible presence in the local economy,” Haggerty added. “Their business customers report higher awareness of their utility’s local economic development activities, and the same customers are more likely to consider them a partner and a trusted energy advisor.”

Escalent is pleased to name these 15 utilities as our 2023 Trusted Business Partners.

* Utilities named as Trusted Business Partners were selected based on having Brand Trust Index scores in the top decile of the industry, the top score within their respective benchmark segment, or a Brand Trust Index score within 20 points of the top benchmark segment score and above the industry average.

The following tables reflect regional peer benchmark Brand Trust scores among the 81 utilities surveyed. These scores reflect the amount of trust business customers have with each utility.

About Utility Trusted Brand & Customer Engagement™: Business

Escalent conducted surveys among 16,061 business electric and natural gas utility customers of the 81 largest US utility companies (based on customer counts). The sample design uses a combination of quotas and weighting based on size of businesses surveyed to ensure a balanced sample of each evaluated utility. Utilities within each benchmark segment are assigned equal weight to balance the influence of each utility’s customers on survey results. The Brand Trust Index score is a composite based upon consumer ratings across six factors. Escalent will supply the exact wording of any survey question upon request.

For more information on the full report, click here.

About Escalent

Escalent is an award-winning data analytics and advisory firm that helps clients understand human and market behaviors to navigate disruption and business transformation. As catalysts of progress for more than 40 years, our strategies guide the world’s leading brands. We accelerate growth by creating a seamless flow between primary, secondary, syndicated, and internal business data, providing consulting and advisory services from insights through implementation. Based on a profound understanding of what drives human beings and markets, we identify actions that build brands, enhance customer experiences, inspire product innovation and boost business productivity. Visit escalent.co to see how we are helping shape the brands that are reshaping the world.